1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a handheld electronic device, and more particular, to a handheld electronic device that can be operated in a longitudinal direction and in a traverse direction.
2. Description of Related Art
A handheld electronic device refers to an electronic device suitable for a user to hold and operate the same, for example, a mobile phone, a multimedia player, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld computer, a handheld game machine and a handheld GPS (global positioning system) receiver etc. The electronic device of the sort usually has a small volume, light, and portable for a user to carry it. Taking the mobile phone as an example, an early mobile phone has a bar-style design. However, later, in order to promote the portability while keeping the areas of the screen and the keyboard thereof unchanged, a flip-style (clamshell-style) mobile phone and a slide-style mobile phone were developed.
A flip-style mobile phone usually includes two bodies which are linked together by using a hinge mechanism to make two side edges thereof pivoted thereon, while the main screen and the keyboard thereof are respectively disposed on each of the inner side of the two bodies. In this way, the two bodies of the flip-style mobile phone can be folded during carriage, and unfolded during operation. A slide-style mobile phone has two bodies as well, but the two bodies thereof are linked together by using a sliding mechanism, and the screen and the keyboard thereof are respectively disposed on the outer side of the upper layer body and the inner side of the lower layer body thereof. Similarly, the two bodies of the slide-style mobile phone can be overlapped with one another during carriage, and slid by one another during operation as well.
Compared to the flip-style mobile phone where the main screen is disposed on the inner side of the bottom one of the two bodies, the main screen of the slide-style mobile phone is disposed on the outer side of the bottom one of the two bodies thereof. Therefore, regardless of a standing-by mode or an operating mode, the screen of a slide-style mobile phone remains exposed on the outer side thereof. Along with the progressive advancement of the technology and usage, a mobile phone with multiple operation modes is being continuously developed to attract customers and provide additional versatility to the customers.
In order to make the relative position of the two bodies of a mobile phone switched between two different placements, a conventional mobile phone with multiple operation modes is equipped with two orthogonal sliding tracks between the two bodies thereof, so that the mobile phone has a phone operation mode after a relative sliding motion in the longitudinal direction thereof between the two bodies or a typing operation mode after a relative sliding motion in the traverse direction thereof between the two bodies. However, the sliding motion of such a mobile phone is not smooth and the appearance of the mobile phone is not novel or attractive.